The present invention relates generally to improved pipe hanging apparatus including an improved beam clamp and more particularly to readily assembled apparatus for supporting a pipe or other conduit from a structural member such as an I-beam of the type commonly used in building construction.
Pipe hanging devices are employed most frequently in factories and commercial structures for supporting pipes from ceilings or an overhead area. In such installations of piping, the various types of pipe hanging devices are generally most conveniently secured to ceiling beams or to overhead trusses.
In recent years, there has been a vast increase in the use of pipes and conduits for the transmission of fluids, such as oil, water, and gas, and to encase electrical conductors in both industrial and domestic applications. Perhaps most common is the increased use of pipe for plumbing and for sprinkler systems to control fires. Often, components for holding or suspending these pipes within the framework of a building or proximate an outdoor truss have been prefabricated to abate increasing on site labor installation costs. However, even with these prefabricated components, assembly is often slow and laborious due at least in part to archaic design considerations.
For example, certain prior art pipe hanging devices require the insertion of a bolt extending from a collar carrying a pipe into a mating bore of a beam clamp positioned some distance away. Due to the displaced location, the poor lighting conditions often surrounding such a location, and a generally unfavorable position of an installer with respect to his work, even a simple threading operation can become a time-consuming as well as a tedious job in the absence of supporting or guiding structure. Moreover, efforts to effect quick and easy assembly of such devices are often thwarted due to the fact that insertion of the bolt may turn, twist, or otherwise displace the beam clamp out of a secure position, thereby requiring repositioning as well as retightening. Yet other prior art pipe hanging devices require the insertion of the bolt into two separate aligned bores of a beam clamp. This type of clamp often limits the adjustability of the bolt relative to the clamp without cutting the bolt since, unless the threads of the second bore are precisely coordinated with respect to the threads of the first bore, the bolt will bind or jam in the second bore. Thus, clamps of this type require acceptance of limited adjustability or the increased costs normally attendant the tapping of coordinated threads in two bores.
Some prior art devices make it difficult after assembly to visually inspect the device to insure that the bolt has been inserted a sufficient distance into the beam clamp to support the weight of the suspended pipe. Hence, what should be the relatively simple installation and inspection of piping may require an inordinate amount of time and consequent expense.
Another time consuming factor in the installation of pipe hanging devices is that it is often necessary or desirable to rotate an already suspended pipe section, as when two pipe sections are threaded together. This operation, due to the friction between the pipe and a supporting collar may require substantial exertion by an installer, may loosen the beam clamp thus requiring repositioning and retightening or at least reinspection of the beam clamp, and may also tend to distort or deform the collar member, even to the extent of inducing failure of the collar.